The argument with the YEC Xans got me thinking. . . thinking about a world where science and religion are in harmony.

In this world, Galileo was not tried for heresy. Instead, he set up his telescope, and, after hundreds of hours of painstaking observation, concluded that the Earth stands still, and the sun goes around it. The Catholic Church hailed his discovery as a breakthrough for science. . . and theology. Nautical expeditions to the edges of the earth found a great cataract, water pouring off into an endless abyss. As our technology improved, we saw beyond the stars, and what we found was most peculiar. Above the stars we found a barrier of mysterious material and origin, and above that, water! Just as it says in Genesis, God divided the waters above from those below, and put the Earth in between.

In this world, we dug down into the Earth and found a thick stratum of solidified mud, as if the whole world had been covered with water. No one understands the significance until theologians point out the similarity to the story of Noah, and calculations on rates of sediment deposits clearly demonstrate the occurrence of a worldwide flood. When we discover radiometric dating, we expect the Bible's prediction of a 10,000 year old Earth to be confirmed. . . and it is! No rock we find is more than 10,000 years old, solidifying the correctness of religious science.

Guided by the Bible, biologists delve deep into the cell and find God's logos, the blueprint of life. As they expect, DNA is written in a code where every base pair finds useful expression in the phenotype. There is no junk DNA. There are no retroviruses and parasitic genes. There are no vestigial structures like the appendix. There is only a clear, efficient system, immune to corruption and development alike, and admitting of no evolution. In the earth we find only fossils of modern animals, each easily placeable in a God-given "kind."

Throughout 2000 years of scientific discovery, theologians and scientists work together to uncover the mysteries of God's creation. Religious scholars are at the forefront of science, sifting through the Bible to find clues about the working of natural phenomena. Scientists follow up on these leads and they are always proved correct, earning the greatest religious scholars honor and acclaim as the leaders of science. The more religious a country is, the more funding it devotes to science and the greater is its scientific progress. Theocracies commonly sport advanced technologies 50 or 100 years ahead of societies which foolishly attempt to separate church and state. Throughout all history, the most religious people are the ones who fearlessly forge ahead into the unknown, made confident by thousands of years of experience that the secrets they explore, the knowledge they uncover, will be in perfect accord with their holy book, needing no excuses, denial, or interpretation.

The argument with the YEC Xans got me thinking. . . thinking about a world where science and religion are in harmony.

In this world, Galileo was not tried for heresy. Instead, he set up his telescope, and, after hundreds of hours of painstaking observation, concluded that the Earth stands still, and the sun goes around it. The Catholic Church hailed his discovery as a breakthrough for science. . . and theology. Nautical expeditions to the edges of the earth found a great cataract, water pouring off into an endless abyss. As our technology improved, we saw beyond the stars, and what we found was most peculiar. Above the stars we found a barrier of mysterious material and origin, and above that, water! Just as it says in Genesis, God divided the waters above from those below, and put the Earth in between.

In this world, we dug down into the Earth and found a thick stratum of solidified mud, as if the whole world had been covered with water. No one understands the significance until theologians point out the similarity to the story of Noah, and calculations on rates of sediment deposits clearly demonstrate the occurrence of a worldwide flood. When we discover radiometric dating, we expect the Bible's prediction of a 10,000 year old Earth to be confirmed. . . and it is! No rock we find is more than 10,000 years old, solidifying the correctness of religious science.

Guided by the Bible, biologists delve deep into the cell and find God's logos, the blueprint of life. As they expect, DNA is written in a code where every base pair finds useful expression in the phenotype. There is no junk DNA. There are no retroviruses and parasitic genes. There are no vestigial structures like the appendix. There is only a clear, efficient system, immune to corruption and development alike, and admitting of no evolution. In the earth we find only fossils of modern animals, each easily placeable in a God-given "kind."

Throughout 2000 years of scientific discovery, theologians and scientists work together to uncover the mysteries of God's creation. Religious scholars are at the forefront of science, sifting through the Bible to find clues about the working of natural phenomena. Scientists follow up on these leads and they are always proved correct, earning the greatest religious scholars honor and acclaim as the leaders of science. The more religious a country is, the more funding it devotes to science and the greater is its scientific progress. Theocracies commonly sport advanced technologies 50 or 100 years ahead of societies which foolishly attempt to separate church and state. Throughout all history, the most religious people are the ones who fearlessly forge ahead into the unknown, made confident by thousands of years of experience that the secrets they explore, the knowledge they uncover, will be in perfect accord with their holy book, needing no excuses, denial, or interpretation.

Oh yeah. . . and pi is equal to 3.

A moving and heartening tale I read on the verands here overlooking the Grand Ditch, all of sixteen feet deep. Someday I would like to visit that place of yours, but I fear it is impossible because my whole continent, almost my whole hemisphere, being located beyond that thunderous cataract you mentioned, at the creation, with no support, has been falling all this time. With my telescope I can look up and see the waterfall, almost six thousand falling-time-equivalents away, receding quickly as my small band of outcasts fall even beyond the depth of Hades. The Great Galileo showed us that heavier objects fall faster regardless of size and shape just as foretold in scripture (he hardly needed to do the experiment). You can understand, then that we light creatures must cling to the enormous mass of the land so that it doesn't fall away from us. We cling to it like a postage stamp on a cannon ball as it whistles downward through the endless night. Some time ago we passed the immense tunnel through the great pillar foundation of the Earth where the Sun makes his regular passage during each night. To make way for the huge solar ball of fire, the tunnel is easily two hundred feet across.

Hey, this is fun. Thanks Gath.

"Those who most loudly proclaim their honesty are least likely to possess it.""Atheism: rejecting all absurdity." S.H.
"Reality, the God alternative"

[liberal Christian]Don't you know that there's really no conflict between religion and science? Genesis etc. were not meant to be interpreted literally. In fact a non-literal reading of Genesis is in complete agreement with Big Bang cosmology, evolution and other scientific theories. Of course, these views were not held by most Christians until after science arrived at them. But this of course only goes to show that we did not fully recieve the Lord's revelation. And don't you go asking how God plays a role in all of this....that's outside the scope of science[/liberal Christian]

[liberal Christian]Don't you know that there's really no conflict between religion and science? Genesis etc. were not meant to be interpreted literally. In fact a non-literal reading of Genesis is in complete agreement with Big Bang cosmology, evolution and other scientific theories. Of course, these views were not held by most Christians until after science arrived at them. But this of course only goes to show that we did not fully recieve the Lord's revelation. And don't you go asking how God plays a role in all of this....that's outside the scope of science[/liberal Christian]

:lol: :lol:

"Those who most loudly proclaim their honesty are least likely to possess it.""Atheism: rejecting all absurdity." S.H.
"Reality, the God alternative"